THE top 10 earners in the NHS in North Wales are paid a total of more than £1.7m a year, it emerged yesterday.

Nine medical consultants and one executive employed by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board were each paid between £170,000 and £200,000, in 2011/12, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives.

The Hywel Dda health board, covering parts of Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Powys, paid its top 10 staff between £130,000 and £210,000. These included seven consultants and three associate specialists.

The high-earners prompted a political row yesterday as Welsh Conservatives shadow health minister Darren Millar Clwyd West AM said: “It is extraordinary that the Betsi Cadwaladr health board’s 10 top earners are taking home far more than the Prime Minister.”

“The suggestion that pay for senior doctors is linked to NHS budgetary pressures is extremely unfair.

“NHS consultants make up one of the most highly-trained groups of professionals in the country, working in roles that carry enormous levels of responsibility and bring a tangible, direct benefit to people’s lives.”

The six-figure salaries – totalling around £10m a year – are common across health boards in Wales.

But Mr Millar said: “At a time when the NHS is facing record-breaking cuts, and patients are fearful about the future of maternity and emergency services, Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board is paying its top earners as much as £200,000 a year.

“The increasing number of patients stuck on NHS waiting lists will find these figures particularly galling, especially as services are struggling under the budgetary pressures imposed by Labour’s £534m cuts. While we accept that pay needs to be competitive to attract some top clinicians, office-based executives on massive six figure sums are difficult for many to accept.”

The health board said the chief executive’s salary was set by Welsh Government as part of NHS reform after a job evaluation exercise. “Earnings of Consultant Medical Staff will reflect the salaries associated with the amendment to the Consultant’s contract in Wales. These terms and conditions are again set at a national level.”

A Welsh Government source said that Mr Millar’s position on the issue was “peppered with contradiction and double-speak”. “One day he whinges about the difficulties that exist in Wales when it comes to recruiting high-quality consultants, the next day he’s moaning about how much they get paid.”